Cynotilapia zebroides (formerly known as Cynotilapia afra) can be found all around Lake Malawi. They are living in the deeper rocky environments but also in intermediate zones from rocks to sand where they defend a territory between the rocks. However in daytime they create large schools in the water column in front of these rocks to feed themselves with plankton. This variant can be found in the neighbourhood of Cobue, on the Mosambican coast.

In the course of 2011 I´ve bought a nice trio of this species. At that time they were just 5 cm tall but in the meantime the male has grown up to a nice size of about 8 cm, the females are now 6-7 cm. Meanwhile we also have the first young ones swimming around.

Up till this moment they behave themselves really peaceful however when it´s mating-season the male starts to clean a hole in the right corner under the rocks in my tank and from that moment he starts defending this hole fiercely. When the spawning is finished he becomes more quit again and he´s still defending this hole but less violent.

In the lake they feed mainly on plankton but also algae from the rocks.
In the aquarium they are comfortable with any food. They take everything they get offered, like spirulina pellets, mysis, artemia, cyclops and shrimp-peas mix.

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